In-line balers permit the operator to drive straight down the windrow with the wheels of the towing vehicle straddling the windrow to avoid running over the gathered crop material. The baler follows directly behind, sweeping up the material and stuffing it up into an overhead baling chamber where it is compacted rearwardly toward a discharge orifice. One distinct advantage of this type of arrangement is that the heavy reciprocating plunger of the machine is directly in line with the towing vehicle such that no force moments are created by plunger reciprocations that would tend to swing the baler about the vehicle. Moreover, the center of gravity of the machine is located directly on or close to the center line path of travel of both the vehicle and the baler so that the load is evenly distributed between the left and right ground wheels of the baler.
In some situations, however, it may be desirable for the in-line baler to be towed in an offset position wherein the towing vehicle is located off to one side of the windrow. For example, in some regions of the country, the operating components of balers are powered by onboard internal combustion engines, rather than the power take-off shaft of the towing vehicle, thus permitting the balers to be towed by vehicles that do not have power take-off shafts. Such vehicles typically have ground clearances, however, which are significantly less than that available in standard high clearance tractors. Therefore, the vehicles must be run beside the windrows instead of centered upon and straddling windrows.
Currently, side delivery balers in which the windrow is picked up off to one side of the baling chamber and then fed laterally into the chamber for rearward compaction, are available which permit the vehicle to be run alongside the windrow while the pickup is centered on the windrow. However, no in-line baler which can be selectively pulled directly behind the vehicle while it straddles the windrow, or off to one side of the vehicle while the vehicle runs alongside the windrow, is currently commercially available.